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Selling more is always a goal. You put hard work into the craft, you want more people to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Before you think of selling your beer at retail, before you even package your beer, there are some things that will help you sell more of your beer at retail.

Selling more beer through your local craft beer store

Consumer buying habits are driven by economics, psychology, and behavior. When making a purchase decision at a specialty beer store, the customer’s decision to buy is usually based on:

“I like the label.”

“It’s in my price range.”

“It came recommended.”

And the repeat decision to buy is based on:

“It tastes good.”

Product labeling: Personality sells

Beers with catchy, fun, and unique brands are easiest to sell on a customer’s first visit. Beer brands that sell well repeatedly over time, on a customer’s return visits, those that deliver on the promise of who and what they say they are—they’re consistent and familiar.

Sample beer labels

Branding creates an identity. Does each of your beers have a unique personality deserving of a name, or are they simply named: “Blonde, IPA, Pale Ale, and Stout”? Do all the labels look exactly the same, or are there personality differences? Is there one strong theme that pulls all your labels together… or does the label on each beer look so different that your brand is disjointed and confusing?

What’s your angle? How did the beer come to be? Provide fun trivia and stories to those representing your beer to consumers. Equip the people who represent your brand—share information at in-store tastings, through your brewery’s website and social media platforms, sales sheets, and shelf talkers.

With a good story, a retailer can sell a lot of beer.

Product pricing: Keep it affordable

Price your beer to keep your brewery operations in the black, but don’t price so high as to slow it down at the retail location. If you’re starting out and not sure what to charge, check out the retail prices of competing beer brands and ask local independent retailers for information on typical wholesale pricing.

Product recommendations: Trustworthy sources

The opinion of another person, who may or may not have the drinker’s preferences in mind, can have a HUGE influence on the purchase decision.

The influence of the retailer

The small independent craft beer retailer has this advantage: Trust.

Like the TV series “Cheers,” your local beer store gets to know its regulars. The retailer points their regulars to beers they believe will be appreciated.

And for new customers, the local craft beer store aims to get the drinker into a beer they’ll like, so they’ll return—and tell their friends about the experience.

This is quite different from mega liquor chains who focus on upselling certain brands. The independent specialty craft beer store is better equipped to showcase any and all breweries’ offerings to their customers.

The influence of lists

Third-party lists and recommendations also have an impact. Every week people walk into the beer store with lists of “top beers”—not realizing that most on the list are “beer whales.” (Like whales in the ocean, everyone talks about these limited-release beers, few see them.) Most of the general beer-seeking public don’t understand the concept of annual release, brewed once, draft only, and regionally available.

Hence, what excites me most are realistic lists—beers recommended by local beer bloggers, beers that are readily available in our State. But such lists are few. Getting your year-round beers in the hands of local bloggers, news sources and publications who can make “top lists” or “beer picks” lists is most helpful to the average consumer.

The influence of media

Radio, TV, magazines, and podcasts also have an affect on people seeking out your beers. In 2011, the Smithsonian wrote an article on Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch; due to longevity of posts on the Web, people are still coming in seeking out that beer, while referencing the article.

It tastes good: Quality is oh-so important!

I can’t overemphasize quality. If a craft beer tastes bad, a craft beer newbie is likely to say, “That style is nasty,” even though it may have simply been an off batch, product gone bad, or ingredients used in a way that aren’t to their personal preference.

Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of small breweries express their goal of getting their product on the shelves of a major retailer, such as a grocery store or mega liquor chain. This is where I get out my soapbox and say to a new brewery, “Be careful.” Distributors sometimes push products into a big-box store for the sale, allowing product to expire on the shelves. I really feel this does craft beer an injustice—if someone’s first experience with a craft beer is a beer that tastes off… well, that’s just bad business.

If signing on with a distributor, make sure they’re properly storing your beer and are having their sales representatives relay this information. If your beer requires refrigeration, be sure to communicate this—but also realize that may limit the amount of beer the shop may purchase. (Big floor displays are at room temperature.)

When brewing flagship beers that are packaged in bottles/cans, don’t continually tweak recipes. Save those experimental batches for the brewpub or accounts who can adequately represent them. People who fall in love with your beer are expecting a consistent flavor. Handcraft is easy to explain, but extreme changes in flavor aren’t… they can lose you followers.

If you realize a beer didn’t hold up as long as expected, have foamers, or unintentionally soured beers, be humble, confident, and have the balls to do recalls. It’s not just your name on the line, but the name of the retailer who is representing your brand.

Congratulations! You’re working toward selling your packaged beer at retail. You have been making great beer for a while. Things are going great at your taproom. Your customers are starting to ask where they can buy your beer. Here are some tips to help you as you reach out to local beer stores.

Tiffany Adamowski and her husband have been operating 99 Bottles beer store, in Federal Way, Washington for the past 7 years. Tiffany was our guest on MicroBrewr podcast episode 029. She taught us how to sell more beer through your local craft beer store. She had so many great tips that I asked her to write a couple of blogs posts to go into more detail.

In this post Tiffany help us understand how to build relationships with your local craft beer store. In the next post she’ll dig deeper into selling more beer through your local craft beer store.

Building relationships with your local craft beer store

So, I hear you’re starting a brewery or becoming a brewery representative, and want to know how to sell product to your local craft beer store. I’ll offer a bit of advice, from the perspective of a craft beer retailer.

Initiating the relationship

Start by introducing yourself and your product. A good way to do this is to get the contact information of the person who makes the buying decisions for the craft beer store. If you’re new to sales, the cold call can be uncomfortable… but it doesn’t need to be. Your goal should be to keep it brief and on-topic:

Hello, my name is … I represent brewery name. We have beers available for your shop, in (format: kegs, bottles, cans). Here is our sales sheet, samples, and my contact information. Our beers will be available through (distributor name, self distributed). Is there a good day/time that I can follow-up?

If you offer to follow up on a specific day/time, keep that appointment. Understand that the shopkeeper at small craft beer shops often wear many hats.

Be aware of other demands on the retailer while you’re there. Realize that they need to focus first on their customers—both in person, and on phone, while you’re making your visit.

Avoid dropping in during “busy times” to pitch your product. For a specialty craft beer store this is often drive-time. Beer bars that serve food may have blackout times during lunch, happy hour, and dinner. If in doubt, call ahead and schedule a time.

Contacting by email? If the email isn’t available on the shop’s website or you’ve not received an answer to a cold email, call the business and ask for the name and email of the person who does the ordering.

The sales sheet

A successful sales sheet should answer the key questions the retailer and their customers will ask about the beer:

Distributor name—if the brewery is self distributing, the sales person’s name and contact information, order due-by days, delivery days.

For larger retailers, include the product SKUs.

Niceties include product images, a list of point-of-sale merchandise available, MSRP, and the background story to the beer and/or brewery.

Sample sales sheets

Invoicing and delivery, if self-distributing

Establish certain days for delivery. Find out what times are best for each retail establishment. A beer bar that serves food may be too busy to accept deliveries during meal hours (lunch/dinner). Often times bottle shops have more versatility in delivery times, but be sure to learn which times are best—they may also have black-out times for delivery due to increased customer flow.

Deliver what you promised; don’t pull cases off one account’s order to give to another. If you’re going to have to short a retailer what they’ve ordered due to limited supply and high demand, communicate this in advance. Don’t rely on your delivery person to relay the news.

Beer is a controlled substance and your State’s Alcohol Control Board requires you to take payment cash on delivery (COD). Thus, have a means to safely store and transport checks and/or cash with you.

Shoving a check into your back pocket? Double think that. Calling the retailer later because you misplaced the check simply shows a lack of professionalism, and can cost them and/or you bank stop-payment fees.

Delivery person math challenged? Get them a calculator. Cases can be damaged in transit, keg shells may need to be returned, or you may have extra cases available. Have a price sheet on hand. Be prepard to adjust invoices on-the-spot.

Maintaining the relationship

Keep track of your customer’s information, and make sure that if you’re relying on a business partner or employee to make sales calls that this data is retained at the company level. Thus, if your brewery’s ownership changes or that salesperson leaves the brewery, you’re not left rebuilding relationships from scratch.

Chief decision maker/buyer: first and last name, phone number (business and cell*), email address, preferred contact method (in person, phone, text, email), days/times available (so you’re not always calling/stopping in on their day off).

Names of other staff at the location who are able to assist: Managers, receiving clerk, and/or staff who may have impact on the purchasing decision.

The date and time you called on them, what was discussed, items promised (POS, allocations of limited/rare beer, etc.)—and when those promises were fulfilled.

How the account is presenting and representing your brand.

Initiatives you’ve taken to drive sales at the establishment—and their success rate.

Niceties and conversation starters that come up in your conversations with them, such as their favorite beers and/or styles, styles that sell well at that specialty beer business, birthdates, anniversaries, kids names, etc. Jot down anything that can help you better present and become more trusted, familiar, and friendly (but avoid being creepy or stalkerish).

*If given a cell number, don’t give it to people looking to buy your beer in that city. Give the main business number of the retail establishment.

Now Audra provides a “kind of one-stop shop, mercenary, CFO for hire” for craft breweries. She helps with accounting solutions such as business plans, pro-formas, costing templates, and software implementation. She also does operational audits and more.

Recently Audra won a business plan competition at Oregon State University to earn an internship at Ninkasi Brewing. At the brewery in Eugene, Oregon, she enhanced her first-hand experience in production, technical, and maintenance aspects of Ninkasi’s operations.

The 3 biggest mistakes she sees breweries make:

Not having enough capital on hand. You’ll need more than 3 month’s cash on hand.

Not planning for information flow. Set up processes to make sure information and documents flow efficiently from one department to another.

Not having funds for contingencies. Set aside 10%-15% for unexpected expenses.

6 tools she suggests to manage your breweries finances:

Set aside time each week to handle paperwork.

Take a cash flow class at the community college.

Use Microsoft Excel or simple accounting software to track your data.

Ensure information is communicated between all departments of the brewery.

Build a budget annually and review it monthly to stay on track.

MOST IMPORTANT: Understand how much your beer costs at any given time, by beer type and by packaging type.

SPECIAL BONUS:

Ask Audra any question about accounting, finance, and strategy for your brewery.

Leave your questions in the comments section below.

Audra will keep watching the comments for the next 30 days to answer as many of your questions as she can.

Be sure to connect with Brewed For Her Ledger and thank Audra for being on the show and for helping us out with questions.

UPDATE: Thirty days is up, Audra is no longer monitoring the questions here. You can still reach her through the links below. Thanks for your great questions everyone!

Listener question:

From Orlando: How do some breweries buy or lease a building for sometimes years while completing renovations and licenses?

From Dan: How much capital does a brewery need to start? Where can they get the capital?

Tiffany Adamowski and her husband have been operating 99 Bottles beer store in Federal Way, Washington for the past 7 years. She tells us how to work with a craft beer store like hers to sell more beer.

99 Bottles has over 1,200 labels of craft beer in stock from over 40 different countries. They also have ciders, meads, and a gigantic selection of beer kegs. They do growler refills and they offer tasting flights every day.

99 Bottles has won a bunch of local awards like “best beer selection,” “best beer store,” and “don’t miss” bottle shop.

This a long episode, but stay tuned through the whole thing because Tiffany gives tons of super detailed advice on how to sell more of your beer at retail outlets like her beer shop.

Some of her tips:

Email before you visit a store, don’t stop in unannounced.

Use customer relations management (CRM) software to keep track of your contacts and to pass the information on to the next sales person.

Drop off samples with a business card, and a flier about your brewery.

Eilise Lane drank a beer in Bend, Oregon that changed her life. After she found out that a woman made the beer, she opened Scarlet Lane Brewing Company in McCordsville, Indiana.

Scarlet Lane Brewing Company’s website:

It was at one time illegal for males to brew beer. We intend to respect that history with our beer designs, our marketing our branding, and our operations. Scarlet Lane is excited to be (re)paving the way for females in the industry…

And they certainly are repaving the way for women in craft beer. Scarlet Lane is the first woman-owned package brewery in Indiana. The investors are mostly women, and the president is also a woman. The 15-BBL system and 30-BBL fermenters at Scarlet Lane are a long way from the turkey fryer that Eilise used to cook wort in her backyard.

Eilise refers to her beers by proper name and she calls her stout her baby. She has lots of great advice such as:

Describe your beers in a way that will resonate with customers

Talk with a customer about her taste preferences to find a beer that she will like

Start talking early with hops growers and wholesalers to make sure you have access to the hops you want

An upcoming beer style:

Other resources:

I couldn’t find much on brown ales gaining popularity. So here’s the recipe for the White House Honey Brown Ale brewed in the White House with President Obama’s homebrew kit. Ale to the Chief: White House Beer Recipe by Sam Kass, The White House, September 1, 2014.

Patty Elliott met her husband at Armadillo Music Hall. Years later, even while running their export business, they saw an old hardware building in their town and decided it should have a brewpub in it. So they started Pecan Street Brewing in Johnson City, Texas.

While they spent 3 years renovating the building, their son, Sean, practiced brewing.

They strive to make Pecan Street Brewing a “third place.” A third place is a place other than work or home, where people can spend a large amount of time and feel just as comfortable as at the other places.

Patty has a hard time defining success. “We want to be perfect and we know we wont be there,” she says, “but we want to keep striving to be better. So I don’t know if we could say if we’ve ever succeeded because we just keep wanting to get better.”

Patty shares some fun stories about the names of their beers. She also has lots of great advice including:

Cathy Smith and her husband opened Philipsburg Brewing Company in Philipsburg, Montana. They found a cool, old building, built in 1888, spent a few years fixing it up, and hired Mike Elliott to be their pro-brewer.

In August 2012, Philipsburg Brewing opened to a crowd of about 100 people—and that’s in a town with a population of about 850!

None of them had ever owned a brewery before, but they’re business is doing fantastic. They say that their biggest mistake was not being ambitious enough. They currently are operating a 10-BBL system, and are planning to expand to larger facility with a 50-BBL system within a year!

Cathy tells us why they walk customers to the door. Mike tells us about his invention for the bar.

They are both great speakers and this interview has tons of fantastic advice, such as:

Hire great people

Put customers first

Give quality in every area

Reach out to other breweries

“The brewery business is an amazing business,” says Cathy. “We’re not all competition, we’re all in it together.”

“People will let you pick their brains to a surprising extent,” adds Mike.

You won’t guess their answer to the question, Cans or bottles? They have some great thoughts on the dilemma.

Welcome to Another MicroBrewr Podcast!

I’ve just got to say that I am having a blast doing this podcast and there are many more to come. If you’re new to MicroBrewr, I’m here to help out if you’re looking at starting up a craft brewery or want to take your brewery to the next level. For the podcast, I get the pleasure of talking with a number of people in the craft beer industry to spread the knowledge to the rest of the community. If you’re thinking of starting a brewery, I’d also check out the 12 question guide you can use to help figure out the financials when in the planning stages. Welcome and if you get a chance, I’d love to connect with you through Facebook or Twitter (you can always use my contact page too!).

Telling a Story Through Beer and a Brewery w/ Adelbert’s Brewery

The craft brewing industry is full of amazing people and Sarah Zomper Haney from Adelbert’s Brewery is no exception! Adelbert’s Brewery is located in Austin, TX and focuses on Belgian-style brewing and bottle-conditions their beers. Sarah and I will discuss topics from marketing, distribution, branding, social media and everything in between.

How to use a story to name your brewery and create a personal connection with your customers

Using social media and word-of-mouth to promote your brewery

The power of the brewery tour

Bringing in food trucks and incorporating beer into food

How to make use of spare brewing capacity

Expanding distribution into other markets and educating distributors

Making your beer stand out and the importance of labeling

Converting people into the craft beer movement

Sarah’s outlook on the craft beer market

Check out the Adelbert’s Brewery or Enjoy Their Bottle-Conditioned Goodness!

Show your support to Sarah and Adelbert’s Brewery for all of the great information that they shared by going on a brewery tour or buying some Adelbert’s beer. It’s a beautiful thing when you can give back by drinking beer:) Here’s some of the ways you can connect with Adelberts!

Like This Podcast and Want to Give Back?

If you like this podcast and all of the free info that I’ve been working to get out to help the brewing community, I would really appreciate it if you would give me a rating in iTunes and share this podcast with your friends. All you need to do is search for MicroBrewr in the iTunes store or you can use link this link here. Giving a rating in iTunes will continue to push the podcast up in the rankings which help get the word out to more people. The support I’ve had with three podcasts in has been so awesome and if there’s anything that I can do for your help promoting the podcast, let me know!

Support MicroBrewr

https://microbrewr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/slidepodcast.jpg306750Joehttps://microbrewr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Logo3-Copy1.gifJoe2014-03-10 06:00:162017-04-09 14:55:02MicroBrewr 003: The Power of A Story w/ Adelbert's Brewery

So remember that first time when you said, “I think I want to start a brewery”! After all of those experiences of getting the brewery up and running, if you could travel back in time and tell yourself some advice, what would it be? At MicroBrewer, we wanted to know and thought that you might too so we asked craft brewery owners the following question:

What do you wish you had known before starting your brewery?

The responses were awesome and really reflected how amazing the craft brewery community is! After reading through all of the responses, we started to see some major trends so we’ve put the responses into major categories. At MicroBrewr, we’ll be focusing more on each of the topics below in future blog posts and podcasts so if you haven’t yet, make sure to sign up for our mailing list in the box below!

I am still amazed at how fast we are growing, so I think that if I had seriously known how fast the growth was going to take place, I might have spent a little more time researching “next steps” in the growth process. I assumed I would be able to grow at a slow comfortable pace, but there is too much demand to let pass by, so the hours are much longer than expected to try our best to keep up with the next immediate needs of the business, and that tends to be the only focus for about 6 months out of the year. It can be a constant rat race to get the projects done just in time for them to be already behind production needs upon completion. This also causes a lot of stress on the team, even for those that also see the potential for the constant growth. A larger brewing system is a next step that looms over our heads at the moment, and will require a change of location for that operation.

I wish we’d known how much our wonderful customers would love our beer; we should have started with a bigger system! We’re small, we only have a one barrel now and are working on getting a 10 barrel system in the next year or two.

People are thirsty! We started with a 3 barrel brewhouse, and that barely made enough beer to keep our tap room stocked. And the tap room was only open two days a week. We recently upgraded to a 20 barrel system, and we’re already planning the next expansion!

I would have built a larger infrastructure at the outset. We’ve expanded the operation and reached capacity production three times since we started brewing in 2009. We’ve now maximized what we can fit in the footprint of our current building. We are in the process of relocating to a new location. Our new site will, of course, have room to grow, so at least we’ve learned!

I think the single biggest thing was that I thought too small. Our kettles are 220 gallons so we do 5 barrels at a time…but we started with a 40 gallon kettle. Yes, 40 gallons, then went to 55 and then to 220….

We actually drank out of beer opening day and had to close for 2 weeks! A lot of this is that we just threw “a few bucks” together and started brewing. I am the local doc in town so I have another job! I taught my daughter how to brew and she is great at it. I guess I should have thought if I am going to do this, just make the investment and do it. We are still growing and have the next step soon.

When we began the brewery addition to our steakhouse in 1997, we never imagined that our 15 bbl brew house with four 15 bbl fermentors and four 15 bbl brite tanks could possibly ever max out. I wish I had known more about the culture surrounding the Craft Beer industry and how much Craft Beer was about to explode. I also wish I had more insight into the physical plant size needed to manage growth opportunities. This perhaps would have helped dictate the size of our brewery from the beginning and aided in the timing and scope of the expansion we completed two years ago.

We wish we knew about the small stuff before starting a brewery! Things we didn’t realize we should know, like how to pour concrete, would have been so helpful during the initial construction process and as we’ve continued to expand. One big element we didn’t really foresee throughout the years has been how successful our tap room is since we’ve opened. Charlotte’s beer scene has grown dramatically over the last few years, so we probably would have made our tap room more spacious. Our consideration of our growing customer base was underestimated; people like us a lot more than we ever realized!

We underestimated the capacity of the brewing system we would need and also underestimated the amount of cooling space and space in general for the brewing area. So, I guess you can say that we wish we had planned and built a larger brewing capacity and more cold storage.

I wish I had had a better sense of what the craft beer industry would become when I first started. Back then, I don’t think anyone expected it to be what it is today. Now Yards has the ability to grow and adapt with the industry as it continues to progress, but at the time I may have made some different decisions, had I had a better picture of the potential for innovation and success down the line.

I guess the main thing that I wish I knew getting into the brewing industry would have been the demand. When we started over a year ago, we were operating a very small 1/2 bbl system and actually ran out of beer after just a month. Since then we have upgraded to a bigger system to meet the demand, which is still tough due to the growing popularity in craft beer. So it would have been nice to know in advance that we would be selling as much beer as we do. Not a bad problem, but problematic.

This is a good question… however I changed it and asked folks at the 30 breweries I toured before starting on my own: “If you had it to do over again, what would you have done differently?” Wow… the things you can learn from others who have been there and done that. Our brewery is fully planned on paper to reach our goal of 40,000BBL/Yr production. Each tank location, warehousing, cooler, etc is all down on paper and pre-planned. There are a lot of dashed lines on our plan that represents the future.

Before we got started we did a lot of research on what to anticipate from seasoned veterans in the industry. All of them said that we should plan for everything to take twice as long and cost three times as much. We approached our plan with this in mind and they were certainly right. We planned for it to take twice as long and cost three times as much and it still took twice as long as that. We ended up completing our buildout and our small expansion just in the nick of time and we consider ourselves very lucky to be where we are.

Overall, I have been fairly lucky because I did a lot research and worked with a brewery consultant before opening, which helped prepare me for a lot. The things that I wish I knew about ahead are construction costs and time commitments. They are always a lot more than what you expect. Take your worst case estimate of them and double it then you might be close.

I wish I would have known…..man so many things. My biggest pieces of advice are: 1) Take you budget and double it. Contractors will always find things that you and they missed in the plans and walk throughs. 2) Take your time line and triple it. Govt shutdowns, licensing, regulations, zoning….these are all done on other peoples schedules.

I wish that I would have known the complexity of the 3 tier distribution system better prior to deciding what beers to launch, along with a better understanding of the chain network. We purchased an existing brewery so we would have liked to have known the amount of additional money it was going to take to get the equipment into top shape. Like any business it is the unknowns that are most difficult in the beginning and that is why sufficient working capital is essential.

Our desire in opening a brewpub was to provide a warm and friendly community pub environment that brewed exceptional beer. Having no prior brewery experience we had no idea the set up would be so complicated or that the financial commitment so big!

I wish I had known more about the particular property that I was going to install the pub and brewery in. A better and more careful inspection would have given me a better idea of the cost of the build-out.

First thing I thought about was “I wish I would have been aware of all the challenges we were up against in redoing an old warehouse. Our architect and contractor continuously ran into obstacles that delayed construction an increased costs”.

I also wish that I would have known exactly how consumers would react to being the new kid in town on the beer scene. The beer geeks were nice and rolled through at the beginning. The interesting thing was there was a big demand for the menu which we did not know would take off like it did. We transformed from a brewery tap room with some good food to a full blown restaurant. Not complaining but my business plan was blown out of the water within 12 months.

As a nano operation, it is critical for us to keep costs and overhead as low as possible while pouring every bit of revenue back into the business. To do any less would result in a lack in ability to grow the business and lead to ultimate failure. That said, while I fully acknowledged this fact prior to opening, I didn’t have a true realization as to what this would mean for me and my partners. We have been working 12 hour days, 7 days a week, for little to no pay for the past year and a half. Don’t get me wrong, it’s paying off and we’re on track to expand into a 7bbl system in the next 12 months, and the work has been vastly rewarding – we love coming to work every day – but it’s been a hard road. But you know what they say… nothing worth doing is ever easy!!

I wish I’d known the high cost of licenses, taxes, fees, bonds, insurance… nothing to do with brewing and everything to do with brewing business. Also, the reality of the cleaning chemicals… The awesome reality of cleaning chemicals…

Bard’s Tale Beer Company is a gluten-free brewer that chose to utilize a contract brewer rather than build our own brewery. Our objective was nationwide distribution of a specialty beer. As such our capacity needs would increase rapidly over a relatively short period of time as we added distribution. There is excess brewing capacity so we felt we could partner with a premier brewer to produce our beer and devote our human resources and capital to sales and marketing instead of a brewery.

Looking back, we could have raised more capital. We don’t control the brewery so our flexibility is somewhat limited in terms of pilot brews, etc. And finally, the brewing business is very competitive for wholesale distribution and retail shelf space. You cannot rest.

Permitting and Other Legal Issues Are Complicated And Take Time

Even with two other operating breweries in my city prior to my opening, many of the city inspectors, officials, etc. had no idea or understanding of what a brewery was or how it operated and that created some resistance and hurdles requiring explanation on my part to teach our inspectors how we operate. Some people assumed the worst or had preconceived notions.

Finding local professionals to assist with installation. It’s not like most of the local HVAC/Plumbers/Electricians have done tons of these and it’s a cinch. Again, I had to educate myself in some areas in order to tell them what they had to do to meet code or to make something functional in a brewery.

I would say that before opening the brewery, it would have been beneficial to have a better understanding of the lengthy drawn out process of permitting for construction and a more accurate understanding on the timeline for build out would have been useful. These were two items that having further clarity on would have helped ease the process a bit.

How to handle effluent. I knew that effluent would be a big deal, but I didn’t know (and still don’t know) all that I need to know about treating waste water before we send it to the sewer. Another huge thing would be determining yeast health after harvesting and before repitching.

In terms of other brick walls that I’ve hit, I wish I had known how convoluted the zoning regulations in New York City are when it comes to breweries. I’m not saying that it would have halted my efforts to get up and running, but it’s been the cause of a fair amount of wheel spinning in trying to get out of the 150 square foot space that I currently am brewing in. On a physical basis – I wish that I had better welding skills. If I was able to weld stainless, I’d probably be half way to a bigger system by now.

We wish we would have known at the beginning that starting a brewery is a waiting game. You’re waiting on permits, etc. that’s out of your control. It’s hard to let go and just wait. We all have learned how to be patient so maybe it wasn’t all that bad. Starting a brewery takes TIME if you want to do things right. We are now in our 3rd year of brewing and have come to understand how everything works.

We also wish we knew how much money it really takes to start a brewery. Things break, a batch doesn’t turn out right, etc. These extra costs need to be planned as much as possible going into starting a brewery. There will always be surprises when running a brewery. It’s important to roll with the punches.

I wish I had known how difficult it would be to deal with the federal and state governments regarding regulation of brewers permit application process. It wasn’t so much the paperwork, it is dealing with representatives from both. The fed and state both lost my applications and paperwork, pushing my approvals back at least 4 months. My state permits were also held up during the great state government shutdown of 2012.

Opening A Brewery is More than Just Brewing Beer… Get Ready For Administrative Work!

Think that opening a brewery means that you can just brew all day? There’s a lot of administrative work that goes into running a brewery!

I wish I would have known how to properly interview employees and know how many employees I would need to keep our facility in operation. I am getting really good at it now but after tons of turnover we have a great staff. We are a mostly seasonal town in Custer and I have to hire many people every single year and its really quite hard to do.

I wish I knew how to brew beer! LOL. I am a recently retired Veteran and have been around the world more than a few times. I consider myself a True Beer Geek/Connoisseur……but it would also be nice to actually brew what we make. I enjoy the hands on aspect of our business in working with people, but I lack the technical skills so I have simply hired folks smarter than me in their respective trades. This has worked well – Jack of many trades – master of none…

Honestly, I had so many years of experience behind me I really knew exactly what I was getting myself into. I think the biggest thing I wish I knew, was how well my back was going to hold up-which is not great. Soon after we opened the pub I went through a series of back surgeries which forced me to focus my energies else where in the business, and less on the physical part, which is the brewing part. So I had to sort of re-invent my roll at the pub. At the end of the day, it all worked out for the best. Also, because we came from out of state I guess I would have to say, I wish we had known more of a network base out here. We had a little, but it took awhile to establish ourselves with all our contractors, purveyors, and employees.

I wish I paid mote attention when I was in High School! I was more concerned with how cute my lab partner was. Also opening a Brew Pub at the same time made me wish I knew more about the workings of a busy restaurant. I thought I was opening a Brew Pub, when I was really opening a Restaurant that sold beer that was brewed there.

I wish I had known just how much more was involved in running a microbrewery than simply making beer. Writing about it is very nostalgic because I don’t write a journal and it is forcing me to look back on a timespan that has been one of the best times of my life. The brewery has been a massive step for me in learning how to be a better business owner and person in general. Because, I guess, another answer to your question would be that ” I could never foresee that the brewery would become my whole life”

Okay, I guess getting advice and listening to advice are two different things. I was told by many folks that being a brewer and running a brewpub are two entirely different occupations. It took me a couple of years to realize that I couldn’t brew, cook, wash dishes, wait tables and open/close the pub while I was running the pub. It is good to stay involved and know what is going on and do the work that nobody else likes to do, but you have to make time to meet and greet customers, schmooze city officials and keep the books in order as well.

The biggest thing to understand in any brewery is that something is always about to go wrong. However, I know that when I began brewing, I didn’t truly understand how gracious the brewing industry can be. Many brewers are in direct competition with each other yet we tend to drink (and appreciate) the beers that our friends are making. Brewers tend to help each other out with things like advice, ingredients, and man power. It’s like no other industry I’ve ever seen. I feel fortunate to be where I am and I love our industry.

Brewing as a manufacturing process is relatively easy. Then comes bottling. You now have multiple machines with multiple moving parts, some pretty tech-heavy computers (depending on how quickly you are trying to bottle and how low you want your oxygen levels), heavy demands on air, CO2, and electricity, and a good chance that things are going to break or wear out. To consistently run a bottling line takes skill, and unless a person has this experience, there will be a learning curve involved. It took us longer to get our bottling line running than I anticipated. We have learned a lot since that first run. I believe we now are very capable of making sure that our bottling line continues to run and puts out very high quality product. If I could have picked up some of these skills before though, it may have been a much easier journey to get to this point.

The one thing I wish I had known more than anything else was utilizing more efficient means of water heating and putting in much larger electrical capacity. We’re only a small scale nano right now, but we could’ve saved a lot of space and time by going with tankless water heaters over a gas fired hot liquor tank. Didn’t know about them until it was too late. Second, I wish I had known how volatile some suppliers are and that prices fluctuate a ton. We’ve gone through 3 different bottle suppliers due to skyrocketing prices through some, we finally found a good consistent supply at a decent price. It’s really hard for us small guys that only use about a pallet of bottles a month.

I had been running 8 restaurants before I opened my brewery, so I was expecting most of the “issues” that maybe a 1st time owner wouldn’t expect. I’m not a brewer, I hired one, so I even knew what to expect out of that relationship.

I’d say the most important thing would be to know the equipment manufacturer that you buy from – make sure you trust them and that they do good work. We bought equipment for our brewery in Indiana from a vendor in California. There were problems with installation and follow up on issues when equipment broke down that someone a little closer may have helped more. It is just good to do a lot of research and not try to “save money” on the expense that is driving your business success.

One thing that would have done me a lot of good if I had known it before I started brewing at Atlas is that most new breweries take some time to dial in their recipes. I experienced a lot of stress worrying about minor imperfections in our procedures early on. Since then, I’ve observed many newer breweries start up, and it seems pretty much universal that brewers take a few batches to figure out the ins and outs of any new brewing system.

I had a few years to plan and think about how I wanted to open HCB. I went to school, got a job with a brewery, and tried to prepare myself for what I wanted to do. There are things that I have learned along the way, but the advice I normally give to people when they say they are trying to open a brewery is either get a job somewhere or hire a brewer. While its a fun job, it’s also a business and jumping from a hobby to something professional takes some planning and time.

A better understanding of our market would have been nice. We underestimated the amount of kegs off the bat, and had to come up with a lot more money quickly to keep up with demand. Other than that, I feel like working in a brewery prepared me for what to expect when it comes to the amount of time and manual labor that is involved.

When I started Shmaltz Brewing 17 years ago, I asked as many people as I could find a ton of questions – over and over! And I still didn’t do nearly enough research about the beer business. Even as a contract brewer for so many years, just wrapping my brain around the distribution and sales and marketing side of the biz took many years – and I’m still learning! I tell all the new brewery folks to take a long deep breath and ask even more questions and take even more time than you’d ever think necessary so you’ll be as prepared as possible for the wild ride ahead. And then go sell beer – every day – over and over. And have a ball – Welcome to the show!

One of my favorite quotes (I have quite a few favorites, one for every occasion!): Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. I came into the brewery business by the back door: I was looking for work and not having much success, so I volunteered to help the brewer at a microbrewery down the street. A few months later, the owner sold the building, land, & business (this was the height of the real estate boom). The new owners did not want the equipment, being a synagog and all. So I bought the equipment from them and then spent a year looking for a location. Then started making some beer, dumping some beer. Eventually figured out what was wrong (can you say sanitation?). Now we make super-clean beer that we bottle condition with honey and has a 2-year shelf life! So here I am five years later, hoping to pay myself something this year.

The Journey Is Half of The Reward of Starting the Brewery

And now, some inspiration! You’ll never know everything and after awhile you’ve just got to take the plunge. After all, what would be better than telling your friends you brew beer for a living. Go for it!

I honestly wouldn’t have changed a thing. I think being a brewery that have thrown caution to the wind, we’ve done many things that we did successfully because we didn’t know any better. The only things we knew going in was the existence of an amazing community brewers, killer beers, and support from our local communities. I believe that was all that we needed to get going and keep us going.

When the excitement becomes a desire which turns into passion; brewing a craft beer for the first time is pure nirvana. Hold your glass up and look into it. If you see the future then you will understand the opportunity you just created. No one told me this, I experienced it myself. I have had so many people express their thoughts along the way.

Many told me what I needed to do only one told me what NOT to do which was the best insight. “Never believe you can build a brewery with just a good beer.” For what it is worth, I have people come up and talk with me about their dream of starting a brewery. Sadly I rarely hear them use the words “business and/or profit”.

We wish we’d known A LOT of things before starting our brewery, but everything that has happened over the last 157 years has ultimately led us to where we are today.

We wish we would have known: How many houses would build up around our original Brewery. We should have bought the whole block!!! That prohibition was coming!! That IPAs would become SO POPULAR! About Hard Cider! How many craft breweries would eventually exist. How devastating the upcoming wars would be. How well our brewery would stand the test of time. That Point Special would be our #1 seller for 157 years.

So What Do You Think?

So was there any advice that really stuck with you? Did I miss anything? I’d love to hear what your comment on the question: What do you wish you had known before starting your brewery? If you’re thinking of starting a brewery, what’s the main questions that are on your mind?

These comments will help shape the future posts and podcasts that I’ll be putting on MicroBrewr in the future. After all, I love to give back to this amazing community as much as I can! So go grab a local brew and lets keep pushing the craft beer movement forward!

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https://microbrewr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/IMG_6691.jpg518778Joehttps://microbrewr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Logo3-Copy1.gifJoe2014-02-09 16:00:242017-04-09 15:09:4261 Brewers Speak Out: What I Wish I'd Known Before Starting a Brewery